Yet I Will Praise You: The Life of David
History bears witness to the many men and women who have gone before us in choosing to praise God in spite of the great suffering they endured. We can learn much from their testimonies of faithfulness and perseverance in the midst of grief and pain. In this series, we share about the trials others have endured, and of their commitment to praise God from the valley.
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.”
-James 1:2
We’ve all seen this verse countless times. Many of us have probably even had it quoted to us often since we said goodbye to our precious babies. But I don’t think there is a person out there who wouldn’t agree that this verse is much easier to read than to live out.
How can I possibly count it all joy when I had to bury my own child?
What is there to be joyful about in the midst of such heartache? Surely, James was not taking my life and these painful circumstances into consideration when he wrote these words!
Yet, these words have not only been penned by James, the brother of Jesus, they have been breathed out by the very Spirit of God. So, as painfully difficult as it may be to consider, it is worth our every effort to discover how to apply this verse to our lives.
The Psalms are filled with accounts of David’s suffering at the hands of his enemies and his weariness from the various trials he continually faced.
Psalm 69 begins like this:
“Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold; I have come into the deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God” (Psalm 69:1-3).
Can you relate? Have you ever felt weary from crying out to the Lord?
David continues to cry out to God:
“Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me. Answer me, O Lord, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy turn to me. Hide not your face from your servant; for I am in distress; make haste to answer me. Draw near to my soul, redeem me” (Psalm 69:14-18).
David is desperate. He recognized that he urgently needed deliverance that only God could provide, and begins to appeal to God’s very character—His steadfast love and abundant mercy.
This is just one of many Psalms where David pours out his heart to the Lord. Although God had chosen David as the next King of Israel and anointed him with His Spirit, David’s life was not an easy one.
- He spent many years of his life living as a fugitive, being hunted by King Saul.
- His wives and children were captured by the Philistines.
- The child he bore with Bathsheba died when he was only a week old.
- The Ark of the Covenant, which signified the presence of God and the atonement of sins, was captured during His reign.
- There was rape, murder, rebellion, and discord among his own children.
And yet, through it all, David clung to the character of God. In the midst of his suffering, he continually called to mind who God is and what He had done. He anchored himself in God’s unchanging character.
Dear sisters, when your heart is crying out in anguish, will you choose to recount the character of our good and sovereign God? For it is only in His goodness and sovereignty that hope and deliverance can be found. That doesn’t mean that you have to hold back from crying out to the Lord. For, as we follow David’s example, we learn that God is big enough to handle all of the raw and real bits of our hearts. Our lament should draw our hearts into a deeper dependence on the Lord.
We are all living in a tension of contesting realities. On one hand, Christ’s redemption of the world has been accomplished through His death and resurrection. On the other, the world is still groaning under the weight of sin. We have been given the glorious promise of heaven, the fullness of joy that comes from being forever in the presence of our great God and King. Yet, we are surrounded by circumstances so desolate and heartbreaking that it is often hard to find the strength to get through each day.
How can we praise God when we have said goodbye to our precious babies? How can we sing when terrorists murder hundreds of innocent people in the course of an afternoon? How do we count it joy in a world where every moment someone is diagnosed with a disease of which there is no cure?
It does not take us long to look at the world around us and realize that we are not home yet. But the only way we can breathe out praise while we are on this broken earth is to breathe in hope from our eternal home. We must come to believe with our whole heart that our God is greater than any trial we face. He is Most High even over our deepest sorrows and greatest suffering.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.” When there is nothing in all of creation that can separate you from the love of God—not life or death, not anything happening in the present or things yet to come—the waves of sorrow, these trials you are facing, will drive you straight into the arms of the One who is your Rock, Fortress, and Deliverer (Psalm 18:2) if you will only let them.
In 2 Corinthians 10:5, Paul talks about taking “every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.” When we feel overwhelmed, stressed, worried, anxious, fearful, or in despair, we need to speak the truth of the gospel to ourselves. Like David in Psalm 69 we need to point ourselves to the hope we have in Christ.
Joy in the midst of sorrow. This is what Jesus offers us in this fallen, pain-filled, sin-wracked world. Affliction is not the end of the story for those who are in Christ. And it is Christ who enables us to say, “Yet I will praise you,” no matter what has happened and regardless of what is to come.
This post originally appeared on the blog on December 16, 2015.
- Ashlee
Hope Mom to Simeon and Odelle
Ashlee is the Editorial Coordinator for Hope Mommies and author of I AM (Hope Mommies, 2017) and Identity (Hope Mommies, 2018). She and her husband, Jesse, live in Milwaukee with their children—five on earth and two in heaven.
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